Albany's Honest Weight co-op bag program helps patrons, nonprofits

Published 5:29 pm, Wednesday, September 23, 2015

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The Enviro Tokens effort at the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany takes a good deed  customers reusing grocery bags  and makes it into an even more socially responsible gesture. The store gives 5 cents off customers' bills for every bag they bring in to pack up their groceries (whether they're reusing plastic or carrying in fabric totes). Through the Enviro Tokens effort, customer can choose to get a token that represents 5 cents instead and then they can drop their token into one of five bins in the Enviro Tokens stand, each representing a nonprofit organization in the community. (Jennifer Gish) less

The Enviro Tokens effort at the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany takes a good deed  customers reusing grocery bags  and makes it into an even more socially responsible gesture. The store gives 5 cents off ... more

Albany's Honest Weight co-op bag program helps patrons, nonprofits

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The Enviro Tokens effort at the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany takes a good deed — customers reusing grocery bags — and makes it into an even more socially responsible gesture.

The store takes 5 cents off customers' bills for every bag (plastic or fabric) they bring in to pack up their groceries. Customers can also choose to donate their savings, using store-issued five-cent tokens, to one of five local nonprofit organizations. New nonprofits will be selected as beneficiaries each quarter.

The five charities for this quarter are Capital Roots, Pride Center of the Capital Region, Capital District Habitat for Humanity, Sierra Club (Hudson Mohawk Chapter) and Literacy New York Greater Capital Region (Literacy Volunteers).

The program, which is modeled after similar projects at other food co-ops, started at the beginning of this month and has been a hit with customers, says Lily Bartels, communications leader for the co-op and member of the leadership team.

"People really appreciate the opportunity to give, and our customers tend to be of a generous mind to begin with. Part of what appeals to them about Honest Weight is they know we're a value-based organization, but they see that we also support nonprofits that are also mission-based and do good work in the community. It's just giving them an opportunity to pay it forward."

As of late last week, 6,000 tokens — equal to $300 — had been collected.